Lynn Thompson

11.22.09


	Welcome Message

Dear Parents:

You may have noticed that this year's report card includes a section on "math facts." Mastery of math facts at each grade level is vital to your child's continued success in mathematics classes. Complex math problems become more difficult if "easy" facts are not mastered-children will have less attention to focus on algorithms, procedures, and problem solving strategies if their attention is focused on the process for determining the answer for facts. Therefore, facts must be practiced until they become automatic.

What math facts does my child need to master at each grade level?

The chart below shows how mastery of math facts has been spread across the grade levels. The levels of mastery listed are used district-wide and reflect an increased expectation for not only which facts need to be known, but also how quickly the child can recall them.

Year	Mastery Expected by the End of the 2nd Trimester	Mastery Expected by the END of the School Year
Grade 1	Uses strategies and manipulatives to figure sums and differences.	Adds and subtracts numbers with sums to 10.
Grade 2	Sums to 18. Subtracts numbers 0-10.	Knows basic addition and subtraction facts (sums to 18).
Grade 3	Has already mastered addition and subtraction facts. Knows multiplication and related division facts 0-5.	Knows basic multiplication and division facts (0-9).
Grade 4	Has already mastered basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts (0-9). Working on multiplication and division facts (10-12).	Knows multiplication and division facts (0-12).
Grades 5 and 6	All facts should already be mastered (with accuracy and efficiency) and used to solve problems.	All facts should already be mastered (with accuracy and efficiency) and used to solve problems.

How do I know that my child has "mastered" his or her facts?

Recall of math facts needs to be automatic. The phrase used throughout the frameworks in reference to computation is "accurately and efficiently." Therefore, mastery at each level includes both 100% accuracy and efficiency (1-2 seconds per problem).